If you cultivate a particularly tasty apple tree in your garden, you may want to grow a young tree yourself. This can be done relatively easily by removing moss.
Can you propagate apple trees by mossing?
Apple treescan be reliably cloned by removing moss and in this way you get offspring that are genetically identical to the mother plant. In this vegetative form of propagation, a branch of the fruit tree is deliberately injured so that roots form at this point after some time.
What is meant by removing moss from the apple tree?
Moss removal is a frequently used method in horticultureMethod for propagating woody plants The aim is to produce genetically identical daughter plants asexually by rooting them on the parent plant. The rooted shoot is only separated from the mother plant when the offshoot has formed sufficient roots to supply itself.
How do you go about removing moss from an apple tree?
Moss removal should be donepreferably in springand is done infour steps:
- Peel a strip of bark from a branch of the apple tree. This should be about as wide as the branch is thick.
- Cut a layer of pulp, for example from a paper handkerchief (€16.00 on Amazon), to the same width. Moisten and sprinkle rooting powder on top.
- First wrap the paper handkerchief and then well-moistened moss around the area.
- The final layer forms a transparent film that allows a view of the peeled area.
What happens next with the moss-free apple tree branch?
See through the foil thatplenty of roots have formed,cut off the branch. Remove the plastic, leave it alone However, remove the moss from the roots and plant the apple tree.
During rooting, it is also important that the moss never completely dries out. If necessary, moisten this slightly with a syringe
Does removing moss from the apple tree make sense?
Apple trees can, like many other garden plants and trees,be cloned using moss. However, proven apple varieties are usually propagated through grafting. In this method of vegetative propagation, scions are copulated on a suitable substrate.
The precisely fitting cut surface of an apple tree rice is placed on that of the base and securely connected with raffia, a rubber finishing tape or electrician's tape.
Tip
Do not grow apple trees from seeds
As exciting as it is to watch a new tree grow from the core of an apple, this propagation method unfortunately doesn't make sense. Since the pollen of a different apple variety is needed to fertilize the fruit trees, only about half of the apple trees grown in this way have the genetic makeup of the mother plant.
